Part Twenty-eight

Intermediate Fly Tying:

Hare Wing Flies

By Al Campbell

The title of this week's session does not have a typo in it.
This week we'll look at flies that use snowshoe hare foot
hairs for the wing. Yes, I said foot hairs. The bottom of
the hind feet of snowshoe hares have long, buoyant, kink
resistant hair that floats like hollow hair when used in flies,
especially in wings.

The problem with hollow hair like elk, deer and moose is
that it's hollow and kinks or breaks easily. It floats like a
cork, but after a few fish, it's usually kinked and frayed
beyond use. CDC is a great material, but floatants and
fish slime can foul the barbules and reduce the buoyant
characteristics of the CDC. But the hair on the bottom
of a snowshoe hare's foot is different. It's buoyant like
elk hair, won't foul like CDC, and won't kink or break like
most hollow hairs.

Most snowshoe hare feet are white, but if you can find one
that was taken during the summer or fall before the color
change, you can usually get hair that's a light chocolate dun
color. If you desire any other color, you can use a
waterproof marker to color the hair.

Those who live where snowshoe hares exist have a nearby
supply and can choose when they will harvest these valuable
feet. The rest of us must search for a vendor who supplies
snowshoe hare feet. The only vendor I know of is Hunter's
Angling Supplies (1-800-331-8558 or www.huntersangling.com).
I've adapted many patterns to this material, but there are a few
that were designed just for snowshoe hare feet. One is the Usual;
a simple fly that uses hair from the bottom and the top of the
foot for the entire fly. I like to use Angler's Choice Llama
dubbing instead of hair from the top of the hare's foot because
the llama dubbing is hollow and floats better than the hair from
the top of a hare's foot.

Do all these hare's and hairs have you confused? Well then,
let's look at a couple of flies and how to tie them. The visual
reference might help.

Tail: Hair from the bottom of a snowshoe hare's hind foot.
Pictured is one toe of a hare with a look at the hairs.

Body: Anglers Choice Llama dubbing. (The Usual pattern
traditionally uses hair from other parts of the hare's foot.) Any quality
dry fly dubbing will also work.

Wing: A clump of hair from the bottom of a snowshoe
hare's foot tied post style. Use the longest hair on the foot.

Tying steps:

1. Select some long hairs from the bottom of a
snowshoe hare's hind foot and tie in as a tail as shown.

2. Tie in another group of hairs from the bottom of the
hare's foot for a wing. Tie them in as a post style wing similar
to the wing used in thorax flies or parachute flies.

3. Dub a body of llama dubbing. If you want to keep it
traditional, blend some fine hair from the top and short hair
from the bottom of the hare's foot to create a coarse dubbing.
The thorax area of the fly should be a little thicker than the
rest of the body.

4. Tie off, whip finish and cement.

The Usual is an old fly that still catches fish like it
did when it was new. It's also a good panfish fly
in any water that has mayfly hatches.

Hackle: Dun or brown dry fly hackle, clipped
on the bottom like a thorax hackle.

Wing: A clump of hair from the bottom of
a snowshoe hare's foot. Use the longest hair on the foot.

Tying Steps

1. Create a split tail using any of the methods
shown in thorax flies. Dub a body to the point shown.

2. Tie in a quality dry fly hackle, curvature facing
forward.

3. Make two hackle wraps back over the front part
of the body, then two wraps forward and tie off.

4. Trim the hackle. Add a wing of hare's foot hair
as shown. Tie off the thread, whip finish and cement.

5. Trim the hackle on the bottom the same way
you trim a thorax fly's hackle.

I suspect that some will feel I went a bit fast on these instructions.
If you've been keeping up with the series so far, you will already
have the skills to perform the steps we covered, so detailed
instructions would be repetitious.

The Hair Wing Dun is usually tied with an elk hair wing.
It works equally as well with either wing. If you've had
problems with elk hair being too brittle, try the hare's
foot pattern. You might like the results.